How Will Mets Fans Remember Matt Harvey?

The Mets recently moved Matt Harvey to the bullpen hoping he could work out his problems there and it did not work. Over the weekend the organization asked him to go to the minors and he refused. This forced the Mets to designate him for assignment. D.F.A.'s are just a fancy way of saying "we are done here." The only options left are for the Mets to try and work out a trade, if that cannot be done, Harvey will be released and become a free agent.

Harvey has no trade value so the Mets are not likely to be offered anything back. Harvey is probably being told by his super agent Scott Boras that he can get a deal somewhere and be a starter. That's not likely to happen, so who the hell knows where he will end up.

The question is, if you are a Mets fan how will you remember Harvey's time in N.Y.? It's tough to call him "a bust." It's really a story of two separate short careers. One, where he was brilliant and the other where he was useless.

Matt Harvey's starts used to be an event. It was Harvey Day at Citi Field and you were sure your team stood a chance. In 2012 Matt came up started 10 games, was 3-5 with a 2.73 ERA. In 2013 he was 9-5, with a 2.27 ERA in 26 starts. Now everyone who was paying attention in 2013 knows he had no run support and his win total could have been much higher. He was injured in 2014. In 2015 Harvey was 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA.

It's been all down hill since. Harvey is 9-19 since the start of 2016. He's had 0 wins this year. His velocity is slightly down but most baseball analysts agree his location is the problem. Whatever the issue is, Matt Harvey was given bad advice. He should have checked his ego, went to the minors and tried to get right. Since that's not going to happen he's made his window to fix things much smaller.

Should some team take a chance on him at the Major League level, he will need to fix things in a hurry or his career will be over. Was it his ego? Was it N.Y. scrutiny? Were injuries to blame? I don't know but I can tell you in all my years of watching baseball his career is one of the most confusing I've ever seen.

What's his Met legacy? I'm not a Mets fan so I can't answer for them but here are the things I know for sure:

The nickname was wasted. "The Dark Knight" is the coolest nickname in all of baseball, maybe all of sports and it was thrown away on Matt Harvey.

I know there are dopey Yankee fans, the "sports talk radio caller" types who will say the Yankees should pick him up. Don't need em', don't want em.'

I liked him, I liked his attitude and I am rooting for him to make a comeback. I like comeback stories.

Scott Boras is a tool and did Matt Harvey no favors here. He should not be telling Matt, "I can get you a job." He should be telling his client to suck it up, go to Vegas or Binghamton and get your control back.